there were many who employed themselves in decorating vestments, for the service of the altar, and making other ornaments used in churches; for these Ratfaellino made borderings and designs representing diiferent saints or historical scenes; he laboured for the lowest prices, and was now constantly falling from bad to worse.
But although the artist had thus deteriorated, there still occasionally proceeded from his hand very beautiful designs and admirable fancies; of this we find ample proof in the number of drawings which were sold and scattered here and there, after the death of those who had used them for their embroidery. In the book of the Signor Spedalingo,[1] for example, there are several of them, which suffice to show how much Ratfaellino was capable of effecting in the matter of design. A large number of the ecclesiastical vestments and other church ornaments prepared at that time, were executed from his drawings, nor were these confined to the churches of Florence, or even to those of the Florentine states; they were sent to Rome, for the bishops and cardinals, being considered exceedingly beautiful. But this mode of embroidery, that namely which was practised by Pagolo of Verona, the Florentine Galieno and others like them, is now-a -days almost abandoned, or even lost, seeing that another method has been discovered, whereby the work is done in long stitches: but this last has neither the beauty nor the exactitude of the former; it is besides much less durable. For the advantage thus secured to the ecclesiastical ornaments by his means, Raffaellino certainly merits considerable acknowledgment, and though borne down by the poverty which oppressed him in life, he must not be deprived after his death of the credit due to his talents. This artist was truly unfortunate in his connections, being constantly surrounded by very poor people of a low degree. It was with Raffaellino, as though feeling himself to have degenerated, he had become ashamed of himself, remembering the high expectations that had been formed of him in
- ↑ Spedalingo, director or superintendent of a hospital; the person here meant is the learned Benedictine Monk, Vincenzio Borghini, to whom, as well as to his book, Vasari makes frequent reference. This deservedly distinguished man of letters, is believed to have assisted our author in the work now before us.
